Transcriber's Note This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the '_' character as _italic_. The footnotes have been consolidated and moved to directly follow the paragraphs in which they are referenced. Be advised that the internal page references made in the text are necessarily meaningless in this version, since the printed page numbers are lost. History of Norwegian Immigration A History of Norwegian Immigration to The United States From the Earliest Beginning down to the Year 1848 By GEORGE T. FLOM, Ph. D. (Columbia) Professor of Scandinavian Languages and Literatures and Acting Professor of English Philology, State University of Iowa [Illustration] PRIVATELY PRINTED IOWA CITY, IOWA 1909 COPYRIGHT 1909 GEORGE T. FLOM THE TORCH PRESS CEDAR RAPIDS IOWA TO MY MOTHER THROUGH WHOM I HAVE COME TO UNDERSTAND SOMETHING OF THE HEROIC WOMANHOOD EXEMPLIFIED IN THE LIVES OF OUR PIONEER MOTHERS, THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED FOREWORD This volume is intended to present the progress of immigration from Norway to this country from the beginning down through what may be termed the first period of settlement. It is possible that I may at some future time return to these studies to trace the further growth of the Scandinavian element and its place and influence in American life. Four years ago I contributed an article to _The Iowa Journal of History and Politics_ upon "The Scandinavian Factor in the American Population," in which I discussed briefly the causes of emigration from the Northern countries. This article forms the basis of chapters VI-VIII of the present volume, much new evidence from later years having, however, been added. In a subsequent issue of the same Journal I published an article on "The Coming of the Norwegians to Iowa," which is embodied in part in chapters III-V of this volume. The remaining thirty-six chapters are new. During the last three summers I have continued my investigation of that part of the subject which deals with the immigration movement. This book represents the results of that investigation down to 1848.